Page 25 - Chiense TExtiles, MET MUSEUM Pub 1934

CHINESE TEXTILES
and very important weaves which have already been re-
ferred to briefly in the discussion of Han textiles. They
are the weft twill and k'o ssu (silk tapestry) weaves .
. The weft twill is considered the most important of all
weaves and since its discovery has been employed con-
stantly in the weaving of figured silks. The Persian in-
fluence on the patterns of the T'ang dynasty leads us to
believe that the weave may have reached China via
Persia some ~ime between the fourth and the late sixth
century.
In our discussion of the silk tapestry weave we use the
Chinese name, k' o ssu, because Westerners are more or
less familiar with the term. More space is devoted to this
weave than to the others for two reasons: first, because
it is the most prized weave of the Chinese and is the , (J; f
only one which we feel safe in calling purely Chinese;
and second, because so many weird stories have been
spread about the method of making it. One of the leg-
ends that has grown up among Westerners about this
weave is that it is really separate pieces of silk cleverly
sewed together. An expert on tapestry would of course
recognize the weave at once, but since experts are very
much in the minority a brief explanation will not be
amiss. Chinese k' o ssu, made as it is of fine silk, does not
in the least resemble Western tapestry, which is usually
done in heavy wools, and although they are both pro-
duced by the same laborious method the technical
achievement of the Chinese is much greater because of
the medium employed. The hand loom is used in both
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